I start to walk away, and Reid calls out, “Does she know she’s your girl?”
I laugh. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
Tab and I haven’t discussed the nature of our relationship since that first night when I told her I wasn’t going to back down. I could see why she would be hesitant, but I’m sure I’ve proved to her by now that I’m a good guy. That I truly have good intentions with her.
I hate all the things that have been going on lately. Away games and contractual obligations. Tomorrow, we wrap the season of my dating show, and it feels wrong to be next to any girl who isn’t her. I don’t want to choose between two women who couldn’t care less about me. I want to choose Tab.
I walk to my truck, head spinning. What if I did choose her? I’d have to look at the contract, but maybe I could say I don’t want to be with either contestant. I text my lawyer, asking him the question, then hop in the truck and head toward her place.
Once I’m parked outside, I send her a text:
Me: I’m outside. Come see me.
Tab: Hmm.
Me: Get your sweet ass down here.
Tab: Kind of busy doing nothing. Not sure I have time.
A plan forms in my mind. All I’ve wanted to do is spend some time out with her, away from everything. Seeing her at the bar before was good, but I couldn’t be with her like that. I had to watch what I did and what I said. I want to be with her like a couple. Show her how good we are together when we’re not worried about sneaking around.
Me: I want to take you out on a proper date. Restaurant. Drinks.
A knock sounds on the door, and I peer up to find Tab smiling in. I unlock the door, and she sits in the passenger seat. “And how will we do all that?” she asks.
I put my shades back on. “We’re headed out of town, Rapunzel.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“And how are you still not going to get recognized?”
“That’s what the hat and glasses are for.”
“Are you going to wear your sunglasses indoors like a tool?”
“Maybe.” I tip my sunglasses up to wink at her, and the blush that spreads across her cheeks fills me up.
“I don’t know if I can hang out with you like that.”
Something tells me she’s full of shit, though.
17
Tab
Experiencing Levi Soucy outside the confines of Nashville and disregarding the idea that we’re supposed to be hiding things is surreal. Once he drives past the city limits, it’s as if a weight lifts off us both. He grins at me from the driver’s side, then turns his hat around backward, and I think my ovaries explode.
I roll the window down, taking in the beautiful late-fall day. It’s like I’m in my very own Taylor Swift song getting lost upstate…except I’m not wearing a scarf.
I’m usually not a poetic person, but it feels like the kind of day for the ages. The one where things shift and beliefs you thought were true collide with reality. Forget about Levi’s reputation, he can’t fake the way he looks over at me, and I simply can’t discard the flip-flop of my stomach when he does either.
There’s a conversation that needs to be had before this goes too much further. But today, we can enjoy this. An opportunityto slip away together where we can just be Tab and Levi. We can leave the worries back in Nashville.
Levi veers the truck off the highway. “We need gas, and then I’ll look up a good place to eat. Any preferences?”
“I like a good burger,” I tell him. “Barbecue. Something like that.”
